


Pure Fiction

by Aurora_Kira



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gen, If Sherlock Thinks You’re Interesting Then You Are, John Feels Like He’s Taking Crazy Pills, John Hearts His Blog, John has a Rich World Problem, Public Opinion Declares John and Sherlock are Fictional
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-22
Updated: 2012-07-22
Packaged: 2017-11-10 11:37:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,063
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/465842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aurora_Kira/pseuds/Aurora_Kira
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The worst of it though, the thing that really makes him feel like he’s taking crazy pills, is that no one else seems bothered by this. The public thinks they’re <i>fake</i> for god’s sake, and all Sherlock can say is “if the case is interesting enough, they’ll find me.” As if that was the only thing that mattered! Lestrade thinks the whole situation is hilarious, has started making it worse by saying “Who?” when people ask about Sherlock. Mycroft feels he’s done his part by cleaning up the mess left by Moriarty and if in the process of wiping out Richard Brook he also happened to turn his little brother into an unreality, well, all the more protection against such a thing happening again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pure Fiction

It’s kind of funny the weird looks he gets sometimes from people who find out he has a blog. I mean, really. He’s an ex-army doctor who solves crimes with his consulting detective flatmate, not a thirteen year old girl. But yes, he has a blog. He actually kind of likes it (now that he’s got something to say). It occupies some of the little time he has left between his job working at the surgery and his job keeping Sherlock alive. It keeps his seldom-utilized creative side exercised. It gives him an outlet to vent about the madness that is his life. There are positives.

There are negatives, too.

The blog has gotten big again. It had slipped back into anonymity after Sherlock “died” and his resurrection and the restoration of his reputation had initially meant very little to it’s overall popularity. The negative stories always appear on page one in size 46 font, while the retraction is buried behind the classifieds next to the ads for women’s knickers.

He hadn’t cared. That had never been the point of the blog. It was just for him. Then just for him and Sherlock. Then just for him and Sherlock and a few close friends. Anyone else could go hang.

He probably should have just switched the settings to private.

After Sherlock fell, there had been a small but very vocal segment of the public—led by a really loudmouthed reporter—who declared quite obnoxiously that the whole thing was a publicity stunt. The conspiracy theorists gained traction after the farce of Richard Brook was exposed and Moriarty’s web began to unravel because, honestly, would you believe a plot that complex if you saw it on television, much less if it happened in real life? John’s life seemed unreal to _him_ sometimes and he was actually living it.

The point: after everything that happened, after becoming famous, being called a fool and a naïve lovesick idiot, after being forgotten, and now after becoming famous yet again, people are starting to act as though he’s not a real person. They talk about him and Sherlock in the comments of his blog like they’re not really there. _“He would have…” “They really didn’t…” “Don’t you think if they…”_ Speculation on their actions and inactions and relationship and fuck knows what else.

Apparently the plebes now think he and Sherlock are fictional.

They’ve started writing stories about them, too. Some of them are labeled RPF, which means that they’re about real people, which he and Sherlock obviously are. But others are called “fan fiction” and are meant to be stories about other people’s fictional characters. Fictional. Characters. And while some are pretty close to real life (at least, he and Sherlock look and talk and act sort of like they do in reality), others are really out there. And he’s not just talking about the shipping (and you should have seen his eyes cross the first time he read a Johnlock story…not that he didn’t bookmark it for later reference).

There are stories that have him and Sherlock meeting for the first time in Afghanistan, online while playing World of Warcraft, in Bart’s while John’s a resident physician and Sherlock’s being admitted for a drug overdose, in sex clubs, at crime scenes, and on and on. The permutations are endless. There are even weirder ones where John’s a ghost or a werewolf, where Sherlock’s a vampire or fae. John’s a woman. Sherlock’s a woman. Mycroft’s a woman. Lestrade’s a woman. Everybody’s a woman and they have a foursome.

Anyway. People are getting a bit crazy and John’s losing patience. He types longwinded diatribes telling people to mind their own business. (Which doesn’t take as long as you might suppose. Despite what people on the internet seem to think, he’s a doctor, of _course_ he knows how to type. You think case notes write themselves or get written longhand? Please.) He rants to Sherlock. He sounds off on his blog (which only fuels the fire). He thinks of asking Mycroft for help and then carefully steps away from the shiny, red, candy-like button.

The worst of it though, the thing that really makes him feel like he’s taking crazy pills, is that no one else seems bothered by this. The public thinks they’re _fake_ for god’s sake, and all Sherlock can say is “if the case is interesting enough, they’ll find me.” As if that was the only thing that mattered! Lestrade thinks the whole situation is hilarious, has started making it worse by saying “Who?” when people ask about Sherlock. Mycroft feels he’s done his part by cleaning up the mess left by Moriarty and if in the process of wiping out Richard Brook he also happened to turn his little brother into an unreality, well, all the more protection against such a thing happening again.

Everyone else is so cool about it that some days he thinks perhaps he _is_ overreacting. After all, he’s got a job, a flat, a madman who provides adventure and excitement—whether in the form of a case or a sulfurous explosion or violin concertos at 3am—a local he’s pleased with and dates on a fairly regular basis. (Although, John tried to ask a lovely thing he met in line at Pret out the other day and when he introduced himself the first thing she said was “Oh, like in those detective stories” and that was quite enough of that, thanks.) Does he really need the whole world to acknowledge his existence?

When he puts it like that, he feels guilty, like this is one of those “Rich World Problems” Lucy showed him on Pinterest. They’d laughed about it at the time, but now that he’s got his own rich world problem—“public opinion has declared I’m fake”—it’s not so damn funny.

He likes his life and he likes his blog and if the whole world thinks he’s fake then, fuck it, at least Sherlock looks at him like he really exists. Sherlock’s form of validation may be a little more callous than Ella’s, but he’s the ultimate authority on “interesting” and by now John’s secure enough in their relationship to know that he falls squarely in that category. That alone should be enough to at least convince himself that his life, their lives aren’t just pure fiction.

**Author's Note:**

> I found this floating around on my hard drive and decided to clean it up and get it out there. I seem to be incapable of finishing any of the dozen other longer pieces I've been working on (slowest writer ever!) and you've gotta publish or perish, right? Right.
> 
> If anybody's got any secrets to share regarding how they manage to pump out quality 5k word ficlets apparently overnight I'd be really grateful to hear them.


End file.
